Land Centre chief joins fight against desertification

The Director General of the National Land Centre (NLC) said there is need for more strategies to fight desertification and land degradation in the country. Dr Emmanuel Nkurunziza said this yesterday at a workshop on scaling up finance for sustainable land management in Rwanda. The seminar was organized by the National Forestry Authority (NAFA) in conjunction with the United Nations office. “We are all aware that environment and human development are two critical elements in our sustainable development endeavors because world productivity is largely dependent on the way our natural resources are managed,” Nkurunziza said. He pointed out that today, the desertification phenomenon and land degradation influence agricultural production, a sector on which the majority of Rwandans depend. Nkurunziza added that currently, the number of people affected by the effects of desertification and land degradation is estimated at more than 65 percent. He pointed out some of the mechanisms the government has put in place to reduce land degradation and desertification, including construction of terraces, family planning methods and forestation, among others. Dr John Musemakweri from UNDP said: “Sustainable land management is not merely a matter of getting the technologies right, but to also get the right incentives and policies.” The objective of the workshop is to validate the integrated financing strategy for land management. Ends